AUBURN HILLS, MICH.—For a large part of this season, Cory Joseph patiently bided his time in the D League, knowing his value to the San Antonio Spurs was in the future rather than the present.

The Spurs saw something in the Toronto native they liked very much and figured he’d eventually play a significant role on one of the league’s best teams.

The future, it seems, is now.

Joseph not only became a spot starter when San Antonio lost Tony Parker to an injury in early March, he has become the first backup off the bench of late as the Spurs make their inexorable march to another Western Conference first-place finish.

“You knew it was coming,” Joseph told the San Antonio Express-News in the wake of his eight-game stint as Parker’s replacement, when the Spurs went 6-2.

“Nobody wants to go to the bench, but it’s Tony Parker.”

Joseph’s experience as a starter—he has averaged more than 17 minutes a game since an early March recall from the D League—is sure to stand him in good stead when the playoffs roll around in a month.

Rotations are tightened during the post-season and Parker will play big minutes, but having capable backups like Joseph and Nando DeColo can only help.

And with coach Gregg Popovich’s penchant for resting starters a lot leading up to the playoffs, Joseph may get an even larger role during the final three weeks of the season.

“They got their feet wet and got to see what it feels like,” Popovich said of Joseph and DeColo.

Who’s hot?

Dallas Mavericks

It was once widely expected that this would be the first season in 13 that the Mavericks did not make the playoffs. And then . . . the Mavs rattled off seven wins in 10 games, the Los Angeles Lakers continued to waffle between awful and a bit better and the Utah Jazz got the hiccups. Going into Thursday action, the Mavs have parlayed that 7-3 stretch to get themselves with 1 1-2 games of the final post-season slot. Just as important, the Mavs are within a game of .500 and that’s when Dirk Nowitzki said he’d shave off a beard that charitably can be called unattractive.

Who’s not?

Boston Celtics

They managed to survive the loss of Rajon Rondo quite well and didn’t seem to miss Jared Sullinger or Leandro Barbosa all that much when they went out for the season. But take Kevin Garnett away from that team and it becomes extraordinarily ordinary. The Celtics, who stopped some of the bleeding by beating the lowly Cleveland Cavaliers at the buzzer on Wednesday night, have lost seven of 10 and are as close to eighth place in the East as sixth.

What’s left?

With its 27-game winning streak over, the Miami Heat might take the foot off the pedal a little bit. But there’s still something to play for. Miami is just two games ahead of San Antonio for best overall record in the league which assures the team holding it homecourt advantage through the NBA Finals.

Inter-borough scuffle

With the Boston Celtics freefalling, there will be a new Atlantic Division champion and the perks are significant. The winner gets either the No. 2 or 3 seed in the post-season and that means no date with the Miami Heat until the conference final. The New York Knicks appear to have the edge—they began Thursday night on a six-game winning streak and holding a 2 ½ game edge on the Brooklyn Nets—but the thought of the rivalry between the teams actually being for something more important than bragging rights is enticing.

Sorry, again

The league once again went public with an admission that referees blew a last-second non-call in the Lakers’ 120-117 win over Minnesota on Tuesday. The interesting part? It was Kobe Bryant who obviously fouled Minnesota’s Ricky Rubio on a game-tying three-point attempt. That’s at least four public admissions of blown calls this year from the league, two that involved the Raptors.

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